The Scandal That Could End Zelensky

Ukraine is being consumed by the “Energoatom affair”  -  the most explosive corruption scandal of Zelensky’s presidency. According to an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), high-ranking officials, including ministers, major businessmen, and top managers of Energoatom, received hefty kickbacks from contractors servicing the state nuclear company.

Among the figures implicated are individuals unusually close to Zelensky: Aleksey Chernyshov, former deputy prime minister and godfather to the president’s child, and businessman Timur Mindich, long viewed as Zelensky’s unofficial treasurer. When NABU and SAPO attempted to bring charges against them this summer, Zelensky and his chief of staff Andrey Yermak pushed parliament to pass a law subordinating NABU and SAPO to the Prosecutor General. Under Western pressure, the law was quickly reversed  -  but the confrontation between Zelensky’s office and the anti-corruption bodies only escalated. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) opened criminal cases against NABU employees; NABU retaliated with its own cases against the SBU.

The conflict intensified to the point where it became clear that either Zelensky and Yermak would find a way to subordinate the anti-corruption agencies, or NABU and SAPO would strike first. For now, NABU and SAPO are winning. They released audio recordings of negotiations between the corruption scheme participants  -  evidence too public and too incriminating for Zelensky’s office to bury behind the scenes. Zelensky and his allies were forced to pretend they support the investigation. They had no other choice.

NABU and SAPO had been collecting material on Energoatom for fifteen months, yet they chose to strike now. Why? Ukrainian media and Telegram channels offer a straightforward explanation: the timing is perfect. Ukraine is already facing severe electricity shortages, and news of massive corruption in the energy sector will provoke enormous public outrage. This winter, outages may become catastrophic. Energy riots are not impossible  -  and the political effect of such revelations, in such conditions, would be devastating.

Ukrainian outlets report that the SBU had prepared criminal cases against key NABU and SAPO officials but lacked authorization to proceed. The anti-corruption chiefs knew this  -  and understood that sooner or later the Zelensky team would move to arrest their people, if not themselves. They simply struck first.

But the decision to publicize the Energoatom recordings and arrest suspects could not have been made by NABU and SAPO alone. This was above their pay grade.

So who authorized the blow?

It is well known that many NABU “detectives”  -  Ukraine’s Western-styled term for operatives  -  are affiliated with Soros-linked structures in Ukraine. These networks are not always friendly to Zelensky. The Energoatom scandal gives them an opportunity to weaken him. Moreover, evidence suggests the anti-corruption agencies acted in coordination with former president Pyotr Poroshenko and his allies. Soros-linked circles and the Poroshenko camp likely see the scandal as an opportunity to trigger a political crisis, splinter Zelensky’s “Servant of the People” party  -  a coalition of incompatible groups  -  and reconfigure the parliamentary majority, possibly replacing the cabinet.

But NABU and SAPO are only formally independent. In reality, they are Western creations. They were established not to serve Zelensky, but to keep Ukraine’s political and economic elite on a short leash. Without Western approval, neither organization would risk a confrontation of this magnitude, even with support from Soros-aligned structures and Poroshenko’s faction.

So who in the West gave the green light?

NABU and SAPO were founded with the help of the U.S. Embassy in 2015, under Barack Obama. If Soros-linked networks are involved, the most obvious suspects are American and European liberals.

Why would liberals go after Zelensky, whom they ostensibly support?

One explanation is that the “liberal politburo” discovered that Zelensky planned to arrest senior anti-corruption officials. Eliminating their main tool for controlling Ukraine’s elites would have been unacceptable. Another  -  more consequential  -  is that Western liberals concluded Zelensky and Yermak are unlikely to remain in power much longer. Military defeats, a looming winter without electricity or heat, mass mobilization, and deepening public anger could sweep away the Zelensky regime. Better, then, to act pre-emptively and shape the political landscape that emerges after his fall.

But there is another force capable of authorizing such a move: the Trump camp.

NABU has FBI liaisons, and the Bureau today is largely influenced by Republicans. If the White House truly wants to end the war in Ukraine, it cannot ignore the obvious: the main obstacle to any peace deal with Russia is Zelensky and Yermak’s refusal to consider compromise. The Energoatom scandal provides a powerful lever of pressure. And if rumors are true that NABU possesses recordings of Zelensky discussing corrupt schemes with Mindich, then publicizing those files would politically destroy him. That may be precisely what Trump’s team wants. Stripping Zelensky of his halo would ease the path toward a negotiated settlement.

Whatever the origin, the Energoatom affair is not just another corruption scandal. It is a controlled detonation inside Ukraine’s power structure  -  one timed for maximum political effect, launched by forces far stronger than NABU itself, and aimed directly at the man once presented to the West as “the face of democracy.”